In May 1917, three Portuguese children declared that they had seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a meadow.
1917年5月，三名葡萄牙儿童宣称，他们在一片草地上看见了圣母玛利亚显现。
The prophecies they received fuelled anti-communist sentiment in the Cold War.
他们收到的预言在冷战时期助长了反共情绪。
In 1992, a witness told the BBC about the "miracles".
1992年，一名目击者向BBC讲述了这些“奇迹”。
On 13 May 1917, 10-year-old Lucia dos Santos and her younger cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marta were tending sheep in a field in Fátima, Portugal when, they claimed, they saw a shining figure in an oak tree.
1917年5月13日，10岁的卢西亚·多斯桑托斯和她年幼的表亲弗朗西斯科、雅辛塔·马尔塔正在葡萄牙法蒂玛的一片田野里放羊，据他们称，当时他们在一棵橡树上看见了一个发光的身影。
They said that the apparition was the Virgin Mary, who told them they should return at the same time on the 13th day of the month for the next five months.
他们说，显现的是圣母玛利亚，她告诉他们，在接下来的五个月里，每个月13日的同一时间都应该回来。
The children also said that they received three revelations.
这些孩子还说，他们得到了三项启示。
Two of them were made public, but one of them, the so-called "third secret of Fátima", was written down and kept hidden in the Vatican until the turn of the millennium.
其中两个被公开，但其中一个，即所谓的“法蒂玛第三秘密”，被写了下来，并一直藏在梵蒂冈，直到千禧年之交。
Speculation about the secret helped to fuel the phenomenon of Fátima – a phenomenon that turned a rural shrine into an unlikely Cold War landmark.
围绕这一秘密的种种猜测助推了法蒂玛现象，而这一现象把一处乡村圣地变成了一个出人意料的冷战地标。
Thousands of pilgrims were said to be present at the apparition's final appearance, on 13 October.
据说，10月13日那次显灵的最后一次出现时，有成千上万名朝圣者在场。
What they reported to have witnessed became known as the Miracle of the Sun.
他们声称亲眼见到的景象后来被称为“太阳奇迹”。
"All I saw was the planets in the sky in many colours.
“我所看到的只是天空中五颜六色的行星。
It was a miracle," one of the witnesses, Francisco Ferreira Rosa, told the BBC's Newsnight in 1992.
“那是一个奇迹，”目击者之一弗朗西斯科·费雷拉·罗萨在1992年告诉BBC《新闻之夜》。
"Then there seemed to be a shower of flowers falling from the sky.
“随后，天空中似乎落下了一阵花雨。
It was like a snowfall.
那就像一场降雪。
And then the Sun started spinning faster and faster like a wheel of fire.
随后，太阳开始像火轮一样越转越快。
It lasted for about half a minute.
这持续了大约半分钟。
By the end, it was going very fast."
到最后，它转得非常快。”
Those who were there that day said that serious illnesses were cured and the blind were restored to sight.
那天在场的人说，重病得到了治愈，盲人也重见光明。
According to the 1980 book Fatima: the Great Sign by Francis Johnston, the Portuguese anti-religious newspaper O Século (The Century) published a report at the time with the headline "Terrifying event!
根据弗朗西斯·约翰斯顿1980年的著作《法蒂玛：伟大的征兆》，葡萄牙反宗教报纸《世纪报》当时发表了一篇报道，标题是“可怕的事件！
How the Sun danced at midday in the sky at Fatima".
太阳如何在法蒂玛正午的天空中起舞。”
The writer said that at least 50,000 people had gathered there.
作者说，至少有5万人聚集在那里。
Whether it was a miracle or a mass hallucination – or a meteorological event – is debated.
那究竟是奇迹、集体幻觉，还是气象事件，至今仍有争议。
But it seemed to have had a profound effect on some of the people who were present.
但这件事似乎对一些在场者产生了深远影响。
"Everyone knows I already had faith.
“大家都知道我本来就有信仰。
But after that, I began to believe even more strongly," Rosa told the BBC in 1992.
但在那之后，我开始更加坚定地相信了，”罗莎在1992年告诉BBC。
"I wasn't afraid, but many people, when they saw the Sun spinning like that, they were afraid.
“我并不害怕，但很多人看到太阳那样旋转时都害怕了。
When something like that happens, you have to believe and have faith."
发生那样的事时，你就不得不相信，并怀有信仰。”
Of the three children who'd had the apparitions, two died in the Spanish Flu outbreak a few years later – leaving Lucia as the only bearer of the messages and prophecies.
在曾见到显灵的三个孩子中，有两个在几年后的西班牙流感暴发中去世，只剩下露西亚成为这些讯息和预言的唯一传递者。
While the first "secret" offered a vision of Hell said to prophesise World War Two, the second – given to the children just before the October Revolution – claimed that if prayers were devoted to the Virgin, Russia would eventually be saved from communism.
第一个“秘密”呈现了一个据说预言第二次世界大战的地狱景象，而第二个“秘密”是在十月革命前不久传达给孩子们的，声称如果人们虔诚地向圣母祈祷，俄罗斯最终将从共产主义中得救。
Uneasy at first with the rapidly growing popularity of Fátima, the Vatican only officially sanctioned the Fátima prophecies in 1930.
梵蒂冈起初对法蒂玛迅速增长的影响力感到不安，直到1930年才正式认可法蒂玛预言。
Under the ultra-conservative António de Oliveira Salazar dictatorship in Portugal, the rural village became one of the most popular Virgin Mary shrines in 20th-Century Catholicism.
在葡萄牙极端保守的安东尼奥·德·奥利维拉·萨拉查独裁统治下，这座乡村村庄成为20世纪天主教中最受欢迎的圣母玛利亚圣地之一。
Pilgrims still visit in their thousands.
朝圣者如今仍成千上万地前往那里。
Worshippers often crawl on their knees along a marble pathway – the Via Penitencial – to the Chapel of Apparitions, where five of the Virgin Mary's six apparitions were said to have occurred.
朝圣者常常跪着沿一条名为“忏悔之路”的大理石小径爬行，前往显现小堂；据说圣母玛利亚六次显现中有五次就发生在那里。
But in the years that followed the children's visions, Fátima picked up a different kind of following.
但在孩子们看到异象之后的几年里，法蒂玛又吸引了一批不同类型的追随者。
By including a prediction of the spread, then the collapse, of communism in Russia, the prophecies developed a political dimension.
由于包含了关于共产主义在俄罗斯传播并随后崩溃的预言，这些预言发展出了政治层面。
During the Cold War, Fátima became an ideological shrine for anti-communists.
冷战期间，法蒂玛成为反共人士的意识形态圣地。
Speaking to the BBC in 1992, the year after the Soviet Union collapsed, theologian Michael Walsh said: "The real problem with Fátima is the message about Our Lady, which has developed in the 20s, about the anti-communism of Fátima… it has become a divisive force, almost, in the Church."
1992年，也就是苏联解体后的第二年，神学家迈克尔·沃尔什对BBC说：“法蒂玛真正的问题在于有关圣母的信息，这种信息在20世纪20年代发展起来，关乎法蒂玛的反共主义……它几乎已经成为教会内部的一股分裂力量。”
Fátima's anti-communist associations increased when the Polish-born Pope John Paul II became a fervent supporter in 1981, after an event that took place on 13 May – on an anniversary of the first apparition.
1981年，一件发生在5月13日，也就是首次显灵周年纪念日的事件之后，波兰出生的教皇约翰·保罗二世成为法蒂玛的热切支持者，法蒂玛与反共产主义之间的联系也随之增强。
While in his "popemobile" in St Peter's Square, Vatican City, he was shot twice at close range.
当他在梵蒂冈城圣彼得广场乘坐“教皇座车”时，近距离遭到两次枪击。
Despite the arrest of the lone gunman, there were theories that others were behind the assassination attempt.
尽管那名独自行凶的枪手被捕，仍有人认为这次刺杀未遂背后另有他人指使。
The Pope alleged in his 2005 memoir that "someone else masterminded it".
教皇在2005年的回忆录中声称，“另有人幕后策划了这件事”。
Could it have been someone in the USSR?
那会不会是苏联的某个人呢？
The Soviet leadership viewed the Pope as a threat, with a Communist Party directive warning in 1979 that the Pope was their "enemy", due to his support for Poland's Solidarity movement.
苏联领导层将教皇视为威胁，1979年共产党的一项指令警告称，由于他支持波兰的团结工会运动，教皇是他们的“敌人”。
Documents recovered from former East German intelligence services in 2005 indicated that Soviet military intelligence initiated the plot to kill him – something that the Russians denied.
2005年从前东德情报机构找回的文件显示，苏联军事情报部门发起了刺杀他的阴谋，但俄罗斯方面否认了这一点。
Because of the date he was shot, the Pope credited his recovery to Our Lady of Fátima – bringing even more anti-communist fervour to believers in the prophecies.
由于他遇刺的日期特殊，教皇将自己的康复归功于法蒂玛圣母，这让相信这些预言的人更加燃起反共热情。
He visited the shrine twice, and one of the bullets extracted from his body was placed alongside diamonds in the gold crown worn by the statue of the Madonna there.
他两次造访这座圣地，从他体内取出的一颗子弹被放入那里圣母像所戴的金冠中，与钻石并列。
As well as drawing worshippers because of its anti-communist interpretations and support from the Pope, Fátima was the subject of fevered speculation fuelled by the existence of the "third secret".
法蒂玛因其反共解读和教皇支持而吸引信徒，此外，“第三秘密”的存在也让它成为狂热猜测的对象。
Lucia wrote it down in 1944, asking that it not be revealed until 1960, and successive popes refused to make it public.
露西亚在1944年把它写了下来，并要求到1960年之前不得公开，而历任教皇都拒绝将其公之于众。
• The suburban spies who sold secrets to the USSR
• 向苏联出卖机密的郊区间谍
• How the US dropped nuclear bombs on Spain in 1966
• 美国如何在1966年将核弹投落在西班牙
Kept in a sealed envelope at the Vatican, and known only to each pope and his inner circle of advisors, it led to Fátima attracting conspiracy theories and doomsday cults.
它被装在密封信封中保存在梵蒂冈，只有历任教皇及其核心顾问圈知晓，这使得法蒂玛吸引了阴谋论和末日崇拜团体。
Attempting to force the Vatican to reveal the secret, Fátima fanatics held hunger strikes, and one even hijacked a plane.
为了迫使梵蒂冈公开这个秘密，法蒂玛狂热追随者举行绝食抗议，其中一人甚至劫持了一架飞机。
When the prophecy was revealed by the Vatican in 2000, an estimated 500,000 worshippers gathered at the Fátima shrine for the announcement.
2000年梵蒂冈公布这一预言时，估计有50万名信徒聚集在法蒂玛圣地聆听这一公布。
Yet for some, it was a letdown.
然而对一些人来说，这令人失望。
The New York Times reported at the time that "the belated disclosure of the third secret of Fátima last week was a little like the FBI announcing that Elvis is, in fact, dead", and that witnesses scoffed at the announcement as a "made-to-measure revelation".
《纽约时报》当时报道称，“上周迟来的法蒂玛第三秘密披露，有点像联邦调查局宣布猫王事实上已经去世”，并说目击者嘲笑这一公布是一次“量身定制的启示”。
Conspiracy theorists had suggested that the prophecy warned of a third world war, or another apocalyptic event threatening mankind.
阴谋论者曾认为，这一预言警告的是第三次世界大战，或另一场威胁人类的末日般事件。
Yet the Vatican described the secret as a vision of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, warning that a man "clothed in white… falls to the ground apparently dead".
然而梵蒂冈将这个秘密描述为关于1981年教皇约翰·保罗二世遇刺未遂事件的异象，其中警示说，一个“身穿白衣的人……倒在地上，看似已经死去”。
Despite the disclosure of the "third secret", speculation has continued about the supposed links between what happened at Fátima and events in the Cold War.
尽管“第三个秘密”已经公开，人们仍继续猜测法蒂玛发生的事情与冷战事件之间所谓的联系。
Some argue that it was no coincidence that, when John Paul II did as the Virgin had asked – consecrating Eastern Europe "to her immaculate heart" in 1984 – Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader and Perestroika began.
有人认为，当约翰·保罗二世按照圣母的要求，在1984年将东欧“奉献给她无玷的圣心”之后，米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫成为苏联领导人并开启改革，这并非巧合。
However, there are critics who question both the sensationalist interpretations of the prophecies and how they were embraced by those in power.
然而，也有批评者质疑人们对这些预言的耸人听闻式解读，以及掌权者如何接纳这些解读。
When releasing the "third secret" as a Cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger – who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 – said that "no great mystery is revealed, nor is the future unveiled", shifting the focus away from apocalyptic predictions.
约瑟夫·拉青格以枢机主教身份公布“第三个秘密”时说，“并没有揭示什么重大奥秘，未来也没有被揭开”；他后来于2005年成为教皇本笃十六世，这番话将关注点从末日预言上转移开来。
"Original reports simply had the Virgin asking people to pray for the 'conversion of the world'," says Michael Carroll, author of the book The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins.
《圣母玛利亚崇拜：心理学起源》一书作者迈克尔·卡罗尔说：“最初的报道只是说圣母要求人们为‘世界的皈依’祈祷。”
"It was only later, in the late 1920s, that Lucia (then in a convent) revised the story and suggested that the Virgin had asked people to pray for the 'conversion of Russia'."
“直到后来，也就是20世纪20年代末，露西亚当时在修道院里，才修改了这个故事，并提出圣母曾要求人们为‘俄罗斯的皈依’祈祷。”
He argues: "There is no doubt that the Church, especially in the immediate post-World War Two period, used the Fatima apparitions in its fight against communism.
他认为：“毫无疑问，教会，尤其是在第二次世界大战刚结束后的时期，曾利用法蒂玛显灵事件来对抗共产主义。
Did that contribute to the collapse of the Soviet Union?
这是否促成了苏联的崩溃？
Fatima per se aside, the Church's opposition generally to communism likely did likely play a role in that collapse, but so likely did a host of other factors."
抛开法蒂玛本身不谈，教会总体上对共产主义的反对很可能确实在那场崩溃中发挥了作用，但许多其他因素也很可能发挥了作用。”
But there is no doubting the impact the visions had.
但这些异象所产生的影响毋庸置疑。
When Lucia died in 2005, at the age of 97, Portugal declared a day of mourning, and canvassing in the general election was suspended.
卢西亚于2005年去世，享年97岁；葡萄牙宣布全国哀悼一天，并暂停了大选拉票活动。
And on 13 May 2025, around 270,000 worshippers gathered at the shrine to mark the day the children said they saw their first vision.
而在2025年5月13日，约27万名信徒聚集在圣地，纪念孩子们所说的他们第一次见到神圣异象的那一天。
For more stories and never-before-published radio scripts to your inbox, sign up to the In History newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week.
如需将更多故事和从未发表过的广播稿发送到你的收件箱，请订阅“In History”新闻简报；而“The Essential List”每周两次为你送上精选专题和见解。
For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
想阅读更多 BBC 文化报道，请在 Facebook 和 Instagram 上关注我们。